Like any political campaign, you are told to attack your opponent’s strengths. Make no doubt about it, the Activist Old Media is Barack Obama’s most powerful SuperPAC, and they are out to attack Mitt Romney on his strength.
Take the Olympics.
Mitt Romney speaks his opinion based on what he and others have seen about the 2012 Games while in London. And the media, wanting so hard to proclaim a “Romney gaffe,” go into full attack mode on the Republican candidate. Everybody seemed to jump on this; ABC’s David Muir said, “So many Brits are boiling… a rough first stop.” “Boy, it sure was,” added George Stephanopoulos. Hey guys, you wanna see rough? Let’s check out rough. Let’s compare actual Olympic experience.
The media has created this battle, clear and simple. It wasn’t like Romney attacked everybody who had ever built a business in America (who was it who did that?); he simply gave his opinion that it was a bit “disconcerting” to see lack of preparation in some areas in London. Many observers in Great Britain have said the same thing. Now, an Olympics expert giving his opinion is called a “gaffe” by the media.
ABC’s Rick Klein can’t wait to declare that Romney is falling into a “long term pattern” of gaffes. You want gaffes? Go to Europe and talk to people in Austria about speaking “Austrian.” Obama did that, and the media ignored it, as well as many other gaffes made by this President (and don’t get us started on Biden and gaffes).
As a reporter, I covered the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City that Mitt Romney saved. I challenge ABC and the other networks to do extensive research on what Romney did to save those Games that were facing financial ruin and were held at a time following 9/11, when security questions in this country were at their highest level. The Games were virtually flawless. Mitt Romney knows of what he speaks. The international negotiations that Romney had to go through to change Olympic protocol by allowing the American flag found in the ruins of the World Trade Center to be displayed at the Salt Lake Olympics was nothing short of historic. Flags of any individual nation are not to be “singled out” during the Games, but Romney went through intense international negotiations to make one of the great moment in our lifetimes happen. Watch the video and tell me it doesn’t give you chills to see this again and be reminded of this moment in time.
Also ignored is Barack Obama’s Olympic experience. Does the media remember the trip he made to Europe to try to win the Games for his hometown, Chicago, as president in 2009? How did that turn out? What is Obama’s history with the Olympics? Like with so many things in his administration, it is a history of failure. Obama boldly proclaimed he was going to Copenhagen to bring the Games to Chicago, and the International Olympic Committee laughed at him. Chicago didn’t make it out of the First Round. “I urge you to choose Chicago,” Obama told the IOC. Wow, quite a pitch there, Barack. Let’s see how often the media mentions Obama’s Olympic experience.
In spite of actual performance, the Activist Old Media is dead set on changing history to create a template where Romney is seen as a failure and Obama’s numerous gaffes and policy failures are ignored. The Olympics are just the media’s latest vehicle for this tactic.